When the Past catches up to you
by MysticAngelDust
Summary: After agreeing to go to a winter festival with her friends, Kagome finds herself in a rather uncomfortable situation.


A/N: It's been a very very long time since I've attempted a fanfiction. My other story will remain incomplete until I can find a reason to continue it, and I will be working on this one for now. Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Kagome stared at her refection in the mirror. It had taken her nearly three hours to get ready; not being used to the fashion of yukata she was now wearing, but her mother had insisted that she wear this particular one. It was a simple winter yukata, blue with small pink sakura blossoms decorating the fabric. The yukata was as close to traditional as she could get with what little money she had, and Kagome hoped that she would not look too out of place next to her friends at the festival that was to take place that night.

Releasing a frustrated sigh the now eighteen year old continued to stare at herself in the mirror. At this current moment it was not the simple yukata or uncomfortable wooden sandals that were the object of her frustration, but rather the state of her hair. As much as she enjoyed allowing her hair to fall loosely over her shoulders as she always had, for this she wanted to do something different. Upon insisting Kagome wear the particular yukata she now wore, her mother also insisted that she wear a comb to match. Grunting slightly Kagome reached over to her dresser top to retrieve her pink comb, and commenced running it through her hair in hard short strokes. After three hours the young woman was becoming quite annoyed with how difficult things had to be just to attend a stupid festival.

"Oi, what the hell are you all dressed up for?" came a gruff voice from the direction of Kagome's window.

The already tight grip on Kagome's brush visibly tightened, causing her delicate knuckles to turn white. "Inuyasha, I really don't have time for your comments right now," Kagome bit out, one of her eyebrows twitching in annoyance.

"What do you mean you don't have time? Of course you have time to talk to me! You'll be doing a lot of it on the way to find more jewel shards today." Inuyasha defended as he pushed himself up onto the windowsill in Kagome's room, and settling himself there in a crouching position.

"Inuyasha, I already told you I'm not going back today. We agreed on three days remember? That was just yesterday evening, and its noon now. That means I still have two and a half more days before you can drag me back," Kagome said absently as she tried to put her hair up in a suitable fashion before blindly groping around on her dresser for the comb her mother had given her.

The hanyou scowled in annoyance, "Feh, whatever I don't care. You're coming back today. In fact you should get out of that stupid outfit right now… Oomf!" Inuyasha suddenly found himself flat on his back in Kagome's back yard with a rather large knot on his head. Kagome's pink hairbrush lay innocently next to his head in the snow covered grass. "What the hell was that for wench?" he yelled up at the window he had been knocked out of.

"That was for being a jerk!" Kagome hissed from her open window, and then harshly closed and locked the window.

The young woman went back to her dresser mirror to stare at the disheveled mess her hair had become during her anger towards the hanyou. "Damn you Inuyasha I nearly had it finished!" she grunted before she began searching for her lost brush. It did not take long, however for the eighteen year old to discover that it had been her brush that she had chosen to throw at the hanyou and that it was now lost to her. "Argh!" she sighed and grabbed the comb and began trying to fix her hair.

Another thirty minutes later and Kagome had finally managed to get everything straight. The young woman was now waiting at the bottom of the shrine steps for her friends who were to meet her to go to the bus stop in less than ten minutes. It had taken her friends quite a bit of convincing for her to finally agree to go to this winter festival in Kyoto with them and even more convincing for them to get her to agree to dress as traditionally as she possibly could.

It had been explained to her that this festival was but a small one in the outskirts of Kyoto celebrated by the locals every winter; although the exact reason the festivals had begun had been lost over time. It was believed to have started sometime in the feudal era. Kagome sighed, the feudal era, she already missed her friends in the past. 'Stupid Inuyasha,' she thought, 'He won't ever get out of my head will he?'

"Earth to Kagome!" Yuka stood in front of the girl, who was now staring off in space.

"Oh, sorry Yuka. I didn't see you there" Kagome apologized.

"Of course you didn't. You were staring off into space like a loon" Yuka teased as she looked Kagome up and down, "Hey you look pretty good," she said. Yuka herself was wearing a green yukata that appeared to be made of a much more expensive material, and had large yellow flowers placed in a spiral pattern on the fabric.

Kagome blushed, "Thank you Yuka. Are the others ready?" she asked.

"Yeah, they're all at the bus stop come on." Kagome's friend said as she grabbed onto the young woman's arm to pull her along.

An hour later Kagome stared wide eyed at the decorations before her. Large ice sculptures lined the streets, and there were small booths selling food and souvenirs everywhere. The other girls had gone off to find something to eat, leaving Kagome and Yuka to explore the festival grounds by themselves.

"Look Kagome, it's a penguin!" Yuka squealed, pointing at a large ice sculpture of a penguin.

Kagome smiled, "It's cute." In all honesty she was tired. Over three hours of getting ready, then another hour on a bus with her friends chatting away about unimportant things, and now walking around the slippery pavement in wooden sandals that she'd never worn before in her life was getting the best of her and it wasn't even two in the afternoon yet.

"Just wait until tonight Kagome; I hear the fireworks are amazing!" Yuka giggled and grabbed her friend's arm to drag her off to look at other ice sculptures.

Inuyasha now sat in his favorite branch of the Sacred Tree sulking. He had not meant to instigate Kagome's wrath, but seeing her dressed like that as he climbed into her room made him uncomfortable. She looked just like _her _in that yukata and he could not stand to see the images that passed through his head at the sight of it.

It was those images, memories really, that now played in his mind as if they had just happened yesterday. Quickly he shook his head in an attempt to remove the offending images from his mind. It was bad enough that Kagome thought he compared her to Kikyo on a near constant basis. He did not need to remind himself that it was not Kikyo that she looked like, but rather someone else.

During moments like these was when the hanyou really felt dirty. Like an insane man running after images of the past that were never meant to be, and should not be sought after. He gave a disgusted grunt; what would Kagome think of him if she found out? If she discovered that he really did chase after the reincarnations of past loves, and that the reason he had been first attracted to Kikyo was that she had been the reincarnation of someone else?

Certainly Kagome would despise him even more than she already did, and such a thing he could not bear. The tear filled look she gave him every time he ran off to see Kikyo was bad enough. He did not need to give her any more reasons to look at him like that. He cared for Kagome, more than he had for Kikyo, and he would not ruin even the slightest feelings she might have for him anymore than he already had.

Banging the back of his head against the trunk of the tree he rested on he sighed; he really needed to stop thinking. At that he closed his eyes in an attempt to catch up on some much needed sleep. After all, jewel shard hunting never left him much time to rest his body.

The sun had finally set over the Kyoto sky, and Kagome wasn't sure if she wanted to wait for the fireworks to start or go find shelter from the cold. The daytime sun that had helped keep her warm despite the snow that fell around her was now gone, and now the only thing protecting her was her yukata.

"Winter yukata my butt." Kagome said through chattering teeth. Although everyone swore up and down that this particular style had been designed for warmth during the winter months, the young woman simply could not see it. The fabric was just too thin, and there were not nearly enough layers to keep her warm.

"Aww, come on Kagome lighten up. Once everyone starts crowding around to watch the fireworks it'll get warm fast." Yuka assured her, "Besides Hojo should be here soon, and I'm sure he'll be more than happy to help keep you warm." She said slyly.

Kagome glared at her friend, "Yuka, you know that I don't like Hojo like that." She said.

Yuka grinned evily, "Aw Kagome, what's with you? When will you realize that you should get rid of that two timer and get with Hojo. He's a really nice boy who cares about you," she scolded, "Oh speak of the devil there he is! Let me go get him," she said as she ran through the crowd to get the boy.

Rolling her eyes Kagome tried to think quickly for a reason to get out of sight. Looking around she noticed a small wooden structure not far from where she stood and quickly dashed towards it; opening the door and urgently shutting it behind her. Letting out a brief sigh of relief Kagome looked around the small structure only to realize that she couldn't see anything at all; everything was completely covered in darkness.

"Hey Kagome where did you go?" she could hear her friend Yuka call from not far away, and she knew that they would be coming her way soon.

"Damnit, what should I do now?" Kagome cursed to herself, she really did not feel like dealing with Hojo today. Hearing her friend's voice getting closer she then decided that staying by the door was not the best idea, and begrudgingly began making her way further into the darkness of the building. She hadn't gone far before her knees hit something hard, causing her to lose her balance and fall face first into the darkness.

Throwing her hands up over her face she tried to turn her body so that she would land on her back and then braced for the impact she knew would soon come. But the impact did not come, instead she found herself falling for what seemed to be indefinitely into the darkness.

A few seconds more and a flash of blue light encircled her. Kagome felt the all too familiar magic of a time slip, much like the one that could be found in the old well at her shrine, for a moment before she found herself dumped head first into freezing water.

Unable to tell which way was up or down, Kagome began kicking her feet in the seemingly endless water. From her many experiences in the Feudal Era with danger the young woman had learned that panicking in situations like this never helped anything, but as her lungs began to fight for air she began losing that battle with herself. After what seemed like an eternity her hands came in contact with hard rock, and she frantically pulled herself up onto a snowy bank.

The last thing she remembered before she passed out was a woman of about thirty rushing over to her side.


End file.
